Apple ipad Pro 12.9in
The big Apple
TABLET ❘ £969 from Apple www.snipca.com/35110
We may as well cut to the chase: if you don’t need Windows, this is the best tablet you can buy. Compared with the 2018 model, it has the same ultra-bright, ultra-sharp screen, accurately covering both SRGB and the wider P3 colour space, set within narrow borders in a solid aluminium case. Inside, Apple’s own A12Z Bionic processor is even more powerful.
On the back is a new camera cluster that doesn’t bring back optical image stabilisation, sacrificed for space in this design, but adds a second ultra-wide lens. Thanks to improved software, both take excellent pictures, and video recording goes up to 4K at 60 frames per second, plus slow motion. The front camera supports clear Facetime video chat and has Apple’s Truedepth, enabling blurred-background portrait mode and the gimmicky ‘animoji’ characters that mimic your expressions.
There’s also a Lidar scanner that apps can use to generate live 3D models of whatever’s around you, an idea likely to take off in the coming years. Five mics and four speakers optimise sound quality, and the latest 802.11ax Wi-fi is built in. We found battery life a bit unpredictable, but the quoted 10 hours is easily achievable, if not more.
The Pencil 2 (£119) is an almost essential addition, and the ipad Pro is now further enhanced by the optional Magic Keyboard (£349 from www.snipca. com/35111), a cover that folds out to ‘float’
This is simply the best tablet a lot of money can buy
the screen on an adjustable hinge. This provides both keyboard and trackpad, the latter supporting ipados’ new on-screen cursor. Apple’s ipados is far more capable than Android on tablets, and you can run more than one app at a time, drag and drop, and manage your files in desktop-like ways – once you learn the rather fiddly gestures required.
All of this represents the state of the art, at a price to match. For £969 you get a very good configuration, minus keyboard and pen. Opt for the maximum 1TB of storage, the £150 cellular option to connect without Wi-fi, and all the accessories, and you could spend two grand. But you’d be getting one of the lightest and most flexible laptops, with the highest-quality touchscreen, supporting a wide range of software and ready for 3D games. Or you could pay the same for a 3kg laptop with a four-hour battery and fans audible enough to keep the cat awake. The ipad Pro is really quite sensible – if you don’t need Windows.